North by Northwest Passage
Ligularia 'Britt Marie Crawford' provides a visual border to the curved steps and a yew hedge Taxus media 'Tautaunii' makes a hedge with the neighboring property.
The north side of the house was rarely seen and never used. After mowing the grass once or twice a week for 23 years, Ken decided to kill the grass, install a flagstone path with a curved stairway through the middle, and make a shade perennial garden.
A spruce, one of the few original trees on the property, had become diseased by 2017 and its lower branches appeared to be dead. Ken began by removing the branches as high as he could reach with the pole saw, much to the horror of our neighbor Janet Rowley. With the help of neighbors Paul Harris and Wally Karst, they felled the tree across Middleton Street. Once down, the main roots were uncovered, cut, and removed to make space for a collection of ornamental evergreen trees.
In order from the left side, he planted Picea abies 'Pendula', a topiary juniper, Pinus parviflora 'Cleary', Picea glauca 'Pendula', a weeping hemlock Tsuga canadensis 'Pendula', and Pinus strobus 'Pendula'. The flowing grasses between the flagstone patio and ornamental evergreens are the golden Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola' standing above an expanse of a sedge Carex pensylvanica.